ABP seeking applicants for Living Labs positions

Alberta Beef Producers (ABP) is looking for applicants for four positions as part of its application to the Living Laboratories Initiative.

The positions include:

1. Living Labs Director – F/T, remote-based
2. Living Labs KTT and Engagement Lead – F/T, remote-based
3. Living Labs Engagement Facilitators (2) – P/T, regional, remote-based

These positions have a May/June proposed start date, and are under a five-year contract, ending March 2027. They’re contingent upon receipt of funding from Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada. Only those applicants selected for interviews will be contacted.

Please submit a cover letter, resume/CV, and compensation expectation to Karin Schmid. Postings will remain open until a successful candidate is found.

Living Labs Background

The Living Laboratories Initiative is a $185 million, 10-year program intended to establish a Canada-wide network of Living Labs, where regional leaders will bring together agricultural producers, stakeholders, and scientists to co-develop, test, and monitor beneficial management practices (BMPs) to enhance climate resiliency.

Living Labs are based upon three core principles: focusing on producer needs, broad and diverse partnerships, and testing in the real-life context under real agricultural production conditions.

Alberta Beef Producers is the lead applicant on a Living Labs proposal “Integrating beef, forage and cropping systems to improve soil C sequestration & reduce GHG emissions.” If successful, this project has several overarching objectives:

• Assess the ability of new, or adjustments to current, beneficial management practices (BMPs) to permanently sequester C and address climate change goals.
• Identify barriers to adoption of and find solutions to increase adoption of BMPs and Agriculture Nature-Based Solutions (Ag-Nbs) to sequester C and address climate change goals;
• Conduct farm-level, regional, and industry-level economic analyses of BMPs and Ag-Nbs and extend economically sustainable practices to encourage producer adoption;
• Develop simple outcomes- and systems-based approaches for producers to quantify the costs and benefits of environmental BMPs;
• Share accurate on-farm measurements of C sequestration and GHG emissions to support C sequestration prediction mapping, GHG modelling, and life-cycle analysis;
• Inform federal and provincial policy on the effectiveness, economics, and adoption potential of Ag-Nbs and current BMPs for climate change solutions across the beef, forage, and cropping sectors; and
• Build a producer-orientated mentorship network.

BMPs that may be considered for implementation on-farm fall under the following broad categories, which were developed with producer engagement and input:

1. Crop rotations and cropping systems (e.g., diversifying rotations, fall seeded crops, use of cover, relay, and intercrops, residue management, optimization of tillage, increased yields, incorporation of livestock grazing, etc.);
2. Land use changes (e.g., conversion of marginal land to perennial or annual forages, conservation/restoration of wetlands, forages/vegetative buffer strips, etc.);
3. Grazing management (e.g., planned livestock grazing on crop or marginal land, managed grazing strategies, etc.);
4. Livestock feeding (e.g., feed additives to reduce GHG emissions, diet formulation strategies, precision feeding, etc.);
5. Nutrient management (e.g., 4R nutrient management, variable rate fertilizer, nitrification inhibitors, manure application on no-till systems, composting, arrangements between crop and livestock producers for manure use, etc.); and
6. Increasing carbon on the whole farm (e.g., recognizing that farms are heterogenous in their ability to sequester C and using manure to optimize where storage occurs).

The project is targeting approximately 51 beef, forage, and cropping producers as core participants, two
to three feedlots, and two to three Indigenous communities, primarily located in three geographical
regions (Peace region, Edmonton/Central region, Lethbridge region).